Mars One updates figures, but actual number of applicants still unclear

The window for applying to Mars One to be one of its first one-way astronauts closes at the end of this month. On Wednesday, the organization issued a release with updated figures on the level of interest this has attracted. “With ten days left before the end of its online application program, Mars One has received interest from more than 165,000 people hoping to be the first humans on Mars,” the release stated. Those 165,000-plus people come from 140 countries, with nearly a quarter of them coming from the United States.

Talking to reporters at the “Million Martian Meeting” in Washington, DC, earlier this month, Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp acknowledged that the number of completed applications is below the number of people who complete the first step of the process, which involves giving little more than a name, email address, and country. “Not all of those 80,000 applicants have gone through and finished their applications,” he said, referring to last number of potential applications Mars One had released at the time. “A large number of people have dropped out when they found out that they had to pay. There are quite a few people who have not finished their application,” he added, saying he was unsure if they would rush to finish their applications before the August 31 deadline or if they had changed their minds. “Not everybody who applies actually makes it to the end.”

However, he said that even the people who complete that initial registration step, but go no further, still count. “They are people who want to go to Mars,” he said. “We want to call them applicants” because they expressed an interest, even if they decided not to pay the registration fee or complete the application. “These are people who still want to go to Mars and who we consider applicants.”

Once the deadline passes at the end of this month, Mars One will convene a selection board to choose those who go on to the next round, which will require additional medical data and interviews. At the Million Martian Meeting earlier this month, Lansdorp estimated that somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of the applicants in this initial, open stage will make it on to that next round. Two more rounds will follow to come up with six groups of four people each, who will then train for the mission that Mars One hopes to fly in the early 2020s.

2 comments to Mars One updates figures, but actual number of applicants still unclear

i believe in this mission i just now heard of it and seeing the stories i wish i had applied cause its too late now i have always had an interest in working under a new civilization starting new beginnings in human exploration beyond earth. to see any life forms other then earth would fulfill my explorer’s quench for what i seek to understand in this life